Nutty But Nice

Infobox Film
name = Nutty but Nice


caption =
director = Jules White
writer = Felix Adler
Clyde Bruckman
starring = Moe Howard
Larry Fine
Curly Howard
Ned Glass
John Tyrrell
Vernon Dent
Cy Schindell
Lynton Brent
Duke York
Johnny Kascier
Harry Wilson
Bert Young
Evelyn Young
Ethelreda Leopold
producer = Jules White
cinematography = John Stumar
editing = Mel Thorsen
distributor = Columbia Pictures
released = flagicon|US June 1, 1940
runtime = 17' 45"
country = USA
language = English
preceded_by = "A Plumbing We Will Go"
followed_by = "How High Is Up?"
amg_id = 1:149021
imdb_id = 0032855

"Nutty but Nice" is the 47th short subject starring American slapstick comedy team the Three Stooges. The trio made a total of 190 shorts for Columbia Pictures between 1934 and 1959.

Plot

The Stooges, who are restaurant entertainers, are asked by two doctors (Vernon Dent, John Tyrrell) to cheer up a little girl who is sick because her father (Ned Glass), who works in the bank, is kidnapped by the mob along with bonds worth $50,000. The Stooges, dressed as overgrown little girls replete with blonde sausage curls, try unsuccessfully to cheer her up. Undaunted, they volunteer to find the girl's father. The doctor give the trio some data:

* 5 ft, 10 inches in his stocking feet
* tattoo on his shoulder
* bald spot
* likes to yodel to his daughter.

The Stooges waste no time hitting the pavement in search for the father. They stop nearly every middle-aged male on the street under six feet tall, barraging each and every one with questions. Suddenly, Curly starts yodeling, and hears a response — from a radio that Butch (one of the mobsters) switched on; Butch (Cy Schindell) has the little girl's father tied to a bed. They decide to see if her father is there. They manage to knock out Butch and free the little girl's father by sliding the bed frame off of the handcuffs. Of course, the bed frame lands on Moe's foot, causing him to hop in pain, leading to Curly and Larry partaking in a Cossack dance.

Just as they are ready to escape, three more mobsters come back so the Stooges and the father block the door, making their own escape harder. Then the little girl's father uses the dumbwaiter to escape to the basement. He goes first. Curly goes next but he forgets to release the lever of the dumbwaiter when he gets out, so the bottom breaks off when raised. When Moe and Larry get on, they fall all the way to the basement and land on Curly and the father. Moe gets so angry at Curly for breaking the dumbwaiter that he uses a plank to hit him with, and smashes the overhead light. They use matches to see, but they always go out. Then suddenly, the mobsters come to the basement and grab them just as the light on a match goes out. When Curly lights a candle he knocks everybody out, including Moe, Larry, and the little girl's father. Just as Curly starts to wake up Moe and Larry with water, they fall out of the way and the water hit the unconscious mobsters. When they wake up, Curly uses a pot to knock them out again and accidentally hits Moe on the head. They call the cops and the father is able to unite with his daughter.

Notes

The title "Nutty But Nice" is a play on the old expression, "naughty but nice".

Further reading

*"Moe Howard and the Three Stooges"; by Moe Howard [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0806507233] , (Citadel Press, 1977).
*"The Complete Three Stooges: The Official Filmography and Three Stooges Companion"; by Jon Solomon [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0971186804] , (Comedy III Productions, Inc., 2002).
*"The Three Stooges Scrapbook"; by Jeff Lenburg, Joan Howard Maurer, Greg Lenburg [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0806509465] (Citadel Press, 1994).
*"The Three Stooges: An Illustrated History, From Amalgamated Morons to American Icons"; by Michael Fleming [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0767905563] (Broadway Publishing, 2002).
*"One Fine Stooge: A Frizzy Life in Pictures"; by Steve Cox and Jim Terry [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1581823630] , (Cumberland House Publishing, 2006).